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This movie is a pain to review!  Thus, I will do two reviews. The first one will be for the wussy people out there that don’t read classics. The second will be for those that have read it and are just as annoyed as I am with the changes that were made. Just so you know, there will probably be "spoilers" in my reviews. Of course, if you’ve read the book, then you already know just about everything that’ll occur in the movie before it happens anyway.

Whatever you do, do not take a youngster to this movie. While there isn’t any swearing (which is amazing, since it is PG-13), there is a lot of violence. The creepy atmosphere that springs up after Frodo (Elijah Wood) begins his journey is reason enough not to have pre-teens there. FYI: while the violence is grotesque at times, there really isn’t any gore. Oh, and don’t forget that the orcs and trolls and other evil creatures are so ugly that they could easily cause nightmares.

Well, that about covers the bad stuff. The good stuff is that the actors and their acting is superb. The story is interesting even at an almost 3 hour stretch. It’s also very confusing if you haven’t read the book and it’ll leave you with a lot of questions about who’s who and what’s going on?!? And why is it happening!?! 

Here’s an outline of the story for those that haven’t seen the previews or don’t know what a book is: Frodo is a Hobbit (that’s a small guy about the size of a dwarf and they have big feet) living in the Shire in a world/country known as Middle-Earth that inherits a ring from his uncle Bilbo. The ring is very powerful and a wizard named Gandalf (Ian McKellen) tells him that it’s evil and will control him. Besides that, the ring wants to go back to its master, an evil spirit (named Sauron) in Mordor (kind of a Middle-earth hell). Thus, Gandalf tells Frodo that he must destroy it and the only way to do so is to take it to the place where it was made and throw it back into the flames. Unfortunately, it was made in Mordor. Thus, Frodo leaves and there’s many dangers on his quest. If I went into it all, then this review would ruin all the surprises and take forever to write as well as read.

Suffice it to say that the main enemies are Ring-Wraiths (black horseback riders) and the orcs/trolls. There are others, but they aren’t big players. They come along and chase Frodo this way and that. They also manage to stab Frodo a couple of times during some climatic points in the movie and we get to see a lot of death or near-death. This is kind of excruciating and not real good for the brain. Then there's the hobbit drowning thing...yuck! And don't forget the monsters. Yow! Slimy, gross looking things. 

If you like fantasy (and action) then this movie is for you. If you like a good story about good versus evil, then you’ll like this movie! If you just like ugly monsters and neat special effects, then see this movie. As far as I know, there isn’t another movie out there with all these things and more. (At least, not until Episode 2 and that’ll probably get ruined by Jar Jar.) Be warned, it can almost get dull at times. Luckily, just as you start to wonder if you'll fall asleep, something bad or interesting will happen!

Basically, this part of the review (yeah, it's what I mentioned at the first...the 2nd one!) goes over what the movie screwed up in the book(s). It’s not really a review, but a compilation of the many things that are wrong with the movie. However, it is by no means, complete. This changes my overall score slightly too.